Fox Sells Out MLB All-Star Game Ads for $38 Million

Fox Sports has sold out its primetime telecast of the 81st annual Major League Baseball All-Star game on July 13, the earliest since it began televising the game in 1997, taking in about $38 million for the summer classic.

Although Fox would not comment on the price it sold each unit for, TheWrap learned from individuals familiar with the sales that the network sold about 75 in-game, 30-second commercial units at about $500,000 each.

Fox Sports officials did tell TheWrap that about 35 percent of the ad units sold were to official sponsors of MLB, including General Motors, Pepsi, Taco Bell, Mastercard, Bank of America, Firestone, Holiday Inn and Anheuser-Busch.

In addition to the in-game units, Fox also signed up a sponsor for the pre-game show which will air at the top of the 8 p.m. hour, along with other advertisers in the pre-game show. Fox said it was not identifying the sponsor at the client’s request. Other advertisers within the pre-show paid considerably less for those 30 second spots and were not included in the $38 million in-game total.

The $500,000 average per in-game unit garnered by Fox was 8-9 percent higher than it got for last year’s game, individuals told TheWrap.

The telecast of last year’s game on Fox, played at Busch Stadium, home of the St. Louis Cardinals, drew an average 13.8 million fans in primetime and the telecast was watched in total or part by 33.6 million viewers, the largest number since 1999, according to Nielsen Media Research data.